Street Fighter IV

[aderack]

I like the "GWUK?!" expressions the characters all make when they're hit. It is, indeed, reminiscent of SFII.

[108]

yeah, played this over the weekend and me and stabo10 unanimously agreed that it's pretty fuckin' good, tho it probably won't be successful at all in japan. it will, however, sell a ton of copies on console ports in the USA.

(edit: actually, i don't know; tekken 6 is more popular in japan than it has any right to be, and this game at least looks a lot (read: a lot) better than tekken 6, so what the hell. i'm sure it'll do fine.)

so far it's hard to tell, with the game's rampant SFII fetishism -- eight of the ten current playable characters, yes, are SFII characters who look exactly like they do in SFII and control, uh, kinda like they do in SFIII. the only stage backgrounds available were fetishistic recreations of guile's and chun-li's stages, so yeah.

i played and won a pretty hot match as ryu, during which i lost only one round, which was, uhh, because i was trying out the saving system. i managed to hit with a "save" three times before the end of the match. if you've ever played as ryu and thrown a shoryuken right after parrying a standing jab, then you might "get" the timing of his "save". i kind of like saving as a concept -- he backsteps, reaches out, and grabs the enemy's shoulder; if successful, he will then punch them VERY BRUTALLY in the chest, and take off about a quarter of their life. at first the saves seem really slow, though once you figure out that, even though it's a simple button combination (MP + MK), it's not for mashing idiocy, synapses in your brain begin to connect for great justice.

being that i am a person who only ever checks the online television listings to see when and on what channel i can see mixed martial arts for free and in high definition, and being that i often call MMA "street fighter: the TV show", i obviously picked the new character abel for my next round.

hell yes! i like him a lot. words can barely convey how awesome he is. he's like alex from SFIII with just a little bit of tekken in him.

wait -- no -- don't let that statement scare you. (disclosure: i despise tekken.)

fireball motion plus punch is this hammer punch move. the range varies wildly from LP to HP. after the hammer punch hits, you can press forward -- or back! -- plus a punch -- or a kick! -- to deliver a follow-up hit. the thing is, the range / speed of the follow-up hit is determined by, well, which direction and which strength of which type of attack you do. basically the goal is to adapt to your enemy's current status and try to hit him (or her!) twice with the attack so as to set them up for "hit #3", which would be a throw of your choosing. in other words, abel's a fighter who really mixes it up!

it's really sharp! the sense rhythm is fantastic. it works very, very well in a strictly 2D fighting game.

still wasn't able to pull off a saving hit with abel, though i imagine it's got some serious potential.

i really, really like his special move set. there's a terry-bogard crack-shoot-esque backstep-jumping-axe-kick move, too, which is pretty hot and combinationable.

they'll supposedly be revealing something like two new characters a month in the run-up to the wide release in japanese arcades, and if more of them have the crisp snap of abel, i think this might turn out to be a very excellent videogame.

at this point, i'm kind of glad that they got the SFII characters out of their system, and also kind of sad, because seriously, zangief and dhalsim and blanka look like jerks, especially in 3D. (honda, on the other hand, looks manly as hell, which is kind of surprising and kind of cool.) guile looks like a complete fucking jerk-off and i really wish they'd left him out of the game.

well, i'm only speaking of aesthetics here, so who knows.

list of hopes:

1. that they don't include ANY of the SFII bosses or "new challengers". we have enough carbon-copy SFII characters already. akuma is okay, i guess.

2. i want sean, alex, and makoto :(

3. especially makoto :(

4. i guess remy and hugo would be nice, though they already have zangief, so hmmmmmm

5. i want at least ten new characters (counting abel and viper)

6. ryu's stage theme, at the very least, better be a fetishistic recreation of the SFII ryu's theme -- all of the other music can be whatever the fuck they want it to be -- acid-eurobeat jack-off trash or whatever

7. i hope there's at least ONE new character that i LOVE -- abel might be that character, though i don't know; i had a much better connection with eileen in virtua fighter 5, though i guess i'd need to play as abel a bunch more, so hmmm

8. it's been said that the SFII characters were loved because they were "accessible" stereotypes of "recognizable" cultures. yeah, i guess. the bosses were ultimately freaks and weirdos, which worked, i guess. i kind of hope that SFIV's bosses are somewhere in between II and III's.

predictions:

1. instead of m.bison/balrog or dudley, i suspect there will be a new black dude, this time a K-1 fighter from africa. he will fill the boxer / kickboxer role, and he'll probably be awesome.

2. there will be SOME crossover character from another capcom game, and it'll be a lot less subtle than poison being hugo's girlfriend in SFIII -- this is the sort of thing developers are learning to force themselves to do for great potential kotaku linkage, et cetera

3. now that i think about it, man, it's too obvious: poison will be a playable character, or possibly a boss!



this game has its first location test at the PLAZA CAPCOM in kichijoji this weekend!

i . . . happen to live one chuo-line stop from kichijoji!

if it's a nice day, that's walking distance!

me and stabo will most definitely go down there and put down 100 yen a match for some abel on ken action.

at the AOU, they were kicking winners, which was kind of lame.

let's see them try that at a location test!

ALSO, this is worth noting: SFIV cabinets (beautiful 1080p LCD screens, sanwa hardware, etc) are linked together so that you don't know which other cabinet you're playing against when you sit down and put in your money. if someone's facing the computer, it'll interrupt their game, et cetera.

in other words, you're not just playing against "the guy directly across from you" anymore.

which is kind of cool -- i played a match against a guy who was sitting right next to me at the AOU show, which was awkward, and we actually exchanged a few words (after i beat him), which just about never happens in the glory-hole atmosphere of a japanese arcade.

on the other hand, it's kind of not cool, because i imagine this "revolutionary" new matching system exists to, um, match up two players who are on winning streaks. in other words: it's designed to end winning streaks.

it'll end winning streaks by matching together players of equal empirical skill. like, if one player is on a winning streak, and so is another player, and the one player is currently fighting against the computer because someone just lost and no one else has stepped in yet, then when the other player on a winning streak wins his game, the first player will get a "NOW FIGHT A NEW RIVAL".

which i guess is kind of cool, though i can't really imagine all of the logistic implications.

still, hmmm.

[layazero]

[Lestrade]

I saw those new LCD arcade machines (in photos) and they look gorgeous. Quick, somebody make one of these that's just a shell for an LCD TV with built-in joysticks—you know, for home use.

Hey, thought: with the space they save, you could practically add an entire extra row of shitty UFO catchers!

Man, I can't wait to play SFIV. Jam out some photos if you go to the test, please, Tim.
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[special blend]

http://youtube.com/results?search_query=street+fighter+4+aou&search_type=

I love how this more or less animates like a 2D game.

[108]

[Lestrade]

Oh! I didn't even realize that VF5 used these cabinets. I guess that make sense. I didn't see any when I was there last April; I must not have been paying attention.
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Illustration Portfolio | The Gamer's Quarter

[pirate`p]

it looks pretty slow/clunky from the videos. i am not pleased.
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[aderack]

Tim, if you review this game, you need to make your own GWUK impressions of each of the characters.

[108]

[Count Hihihi]

^ What was that?

[aderack]

I think I made it clear how sincere I am about the GWUK. These are the things I look for.

[Lestrade]

Yeah, back in the SFII days, my favourite part of Street Fighter was the vomit, because it didn't happen all that often and you knew you just punched/kicked the fuck out of someone if you made them puke all over themselves.

I'm glad Capcom is putting more of this kind of detail into the game. I think we've seen enough of pretty, plastic models bouncing off the ground, you know?
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Illustration Portfolio | The Gamer's Quarter

[layazero]

[luvcraft]

did somebody already mention how many buttons this game has? (I hope it's less than six)

[BotageL]

It has six, as the Lord intended.

You will have three types of punch and three types of kick and by God you're going to like it.
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[nothingxs]

tim, curious question

what's with you and tekken
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- n o t h i n g x s -

[thecalamitouskid]

[mrnutz]

[layazero]

i was expecting a killer instinct reference...

[108]

[RobotRocker]

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=93157

So. Who is the best troll towards hardcore players. Sakurai or Ono?

[mrnutz]

[layazero]

[108]

yeah LIVE (not really) from the location test (which we went to last night):

new stages including brazil, a boat in "asia", a really really awesome "USA" stage which I kinda hope is Ken's (night time, outside a diner, parking lot lit by car headlights -- kinda James-Dean-ish).

also, balrog.

someone was fighting against balrog. no idea how or why. just, between two fights, someone was fighting the computer (actually, it said "NET" by the character instead of "CPU", so it might have been someone at Capcom Headquarters testing out the online play).

So yeah, Balrog (by which I mean the "American" Balrog, Japanese "M.Bison") is most definitely in the game.

I guess that's news?

If Balrog is in there, I find it hard to believe that M.Bison, Vega, and Sagat won't be in there, too. Which brings us up to twelve Street Fighter II characters, two new characters, and zero Street Fighter III characters, so far.

Also, I do believe I have figured out the Saving system, and it's pretty awesome.

[nocturnedelight]

If SSFIITHDR sells for 10 Bucks, and has great online play, and SFIV sells for $40, and is essentially SFII3D+...

??
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I like video games

[RobotRocker]

[layazero]

i don't like ono's ideas about adding stuff just to appease every niche of fan out there. at some point (in any part of development) you have to say "that's it, these are the features (or characters, or rules, or whatever), no more." 1up state a 6/15 release date for arc and consoles. if it is a lot further down, then ok... but at some point there has to be a feature freeze so that the stuff in there is of good quality.

I'd rather have a good game with a fewer list of characters than a shoddy game with a ton of fan service... good games tend to stand the test of time/sales too (like super turbo).

also, game boy?! come on... guilty gear was good on the wii, but you are not making a good fighter for the game boy that has the same rules as a ps3 title... i understand his rationale and that this is a hyperbole, but i don't even think it'll be a good game if brought to the DS. There's more to these rules than just rules...

that said, i have half a mind to assume this is all just lip service and ono is doing the right things "behind the scenes."

i still think SFIV looks like it's going to be a great game, but i certainly would not want to work with ono...

[Ben Reed]

[thecalamitouskid]

New character: http://kotaku.com/assets/resources/2008/03/elfuerte.jpg

I'm not sure if we need another throw-based character. Hopefully he'll have a fireball? It seems like the newer characters are more "realistic."
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[Ben Reed]

[thecalamitouskid]

[quote="Ben Reed"]

[Ben Reed]

To continue my shameless apologies for SF4, I have to say that even in their prime, Capcom would have a very hard time topping the creativity of the original World Warrior designs while still maintaining characters "grounded" enough for the simplicity of a Street Fighter 2-style game.

To wit, Dhalsim. He's a fire-breathing, magic-sliding, teleporting, drill-kicking, anorexic Yoga master with a body made of rubber, gigantic gold bracelets, and a necklace made of FUCKING INFANT SKULLS.

And this was in Street Fighter Goddamned Two, in the same game as a green beast-man with the power of bioelectricity and deadly ball attacks, a Chinese Interpol agent with thigh compression like a car compactor, a SPANISH FREAKIN' NINJA with lovely blond hair, and a drug lord with the power of flight. A DRUG LORD WITH THE POWER OF FLIGHT. How the fuck can you EVER top that?

But in a more serious mode, Capcom always comes under more intense scrutiny for these design decisions because, for better or for worse, they carry the burden of having ESTABLISHED most of the design conventions for games on this scale of relatively muted outlandishness. It begs kind of a Zen question -- is it wrong to reinvent the wheel, when the reinventors are in fact the originators of the old wheel?

I really won't presume to answer such a question, because yes, the very real possibility is that Street Fighter 4 will be underwhelming and/or flat-out suck. But for all the jokes about them, Capcom has put out quality products when they've put their minds and resources to it, and I think they still deserve the benefit of the doubt.
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<Smug>

[thecalamitouskid]

[Ben Reed]

[TOLLMASTER]

[mrnutz]

[wall of beef]

Im really liking how everything is going so far with this game, people are freaking out about so many little things. Lots of the things that you will not exactly notice normally in a match, like the facial expressions. Those are just going to blend in, and make the game much the more awesome.

So far this game seems to make more sense as a game in the Street Fighter series than SF3 does, even though I love SF3:Third Strike. SF3 just got way too sci-fi, this seems much more grounded. With big punishing hits, cool design.

[analogosagnos]

[thecalamitouskid]

People keep mentioning Alex, but I don't see many people competitively playing with Alex...then again, I guess SFIII had the misfortune of falling into the "hardcore" category.
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[Ben Reed]

[thecalamitouskid]

[Ben Reed]

If El Fuerte ISN'T a super-fast SNK-esque light grappler, I will be honestly very surprised.

Honestly, I still think it's way too early to start picking this game apart, given that we've only seen a handful of characters at very early location tests so far, most of whom are faces we've already seen before (the original 8 + C. Viper and fleeting glimpses of Abel). The proof, to me, will always be in the playing. Give the game a few months to get broken wide open and we'll see what's deep inside.
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<Smug>

[jaihson]

Here I come a'running. You may read my post as e-screaming if you want.

What about SFIV indicates that it cares one lick about anything but the broadest possible base? Granted, it's still a fighting game as opposed to, I dunno, a squad based shoorter or something, so it's made some concessions there, but pretty much everything else about it crys out for mainstream approval. Multiple supers with multiple levels too much to think about? Fuck'em, one super with one bar for everyone. Sprites too old for your eyes? Ta-da, polygons aplenty. Don't like those freaks in SF3? What freaks, all I see is that lovable cast of characters you remember from the old machine in the back of the 7-11 2 decades ago. Remember them?

I dunno, I guess you could argue that simply making a fighting game that continues to follow SF2's template is aiming at a location long abandoned by the common man, and that's fair enough.

Also, I'm guessing a KoF stun gun would be quite jump outable, seeing as Vice has a carbon copy of it that throws as opposed to stuns. As for Alex's ease of use, I dunno, in many ways he's a fantastic low/mid level character. You can get a lot of mileage out of his simple HP/c.HK/powerbomb mixup on a waking opponent, ex-elbow bridges that annoying distance quickly and (relatively) safely, knee-slap is pretty much the only combo you need and he hits hard for his speed.. I've introduced a couple of people to sf3 via Alex, but eh, that's just my personal bias.


Also also, no love for Zangoef's Alex?


edit: I certainly say 'I dunno' a lot, don't I?

[Ben Reed]